Sandy Robert, her agent, wasn't as conflicted. After seeing Wayne's reply, he happily jumped up from the couch.
"This is great! It seems Mr. Wayne really is interested in you! And it looks like he's coming alone tonight. If that's the case, Avril, you need to seize this opportunity, understand? Don't you want to release an album and become a big star? If you can get close to Mr. Wayne, that'll be a piece of cake!"
Sandy Robert paced back and forth in the room as he spoke.
Suddenly, as if something had occurred to him, he quickly added, "Even if Mr. Wayne brings another woman, you still need to make the first move! Men like him are very busy, and he has so many women already. If you miss this chance, who knows if there'll be another! In any case, you need to do whatever it takes to get into his bed tonight. If you fail, don't bother coming back, and you can forget about the album!"
Avril rolled her eyes so hard she nearly threw her guitar at Sandy Robert's head.
However, realizing she was still an unknown rookie and that her new album's production relied on Sandy Robert's help, she reluctantly dismissed the idea.
"I know what to do!" Avril scoffed, pretending to be indifferent.
But when night fell, and it was almost her time to perform, there was still no sign of Wayne at the bar.
She finally couldn't keep her cool, showing a nervous and anxious expression.
"Didn't he say he'd come to watch my performance? Why hasn't he shown up yet? Could something have happened to him on the way?"
"Should I call him?"
"But what if he just forgot, or he never intended to come in the first place? If I call, won't that be awkward?"
Avril paced back and forth with her phone, torn between calling Wayne or not. She was gripping the phone so tightly that her knuckles turned white.
Fortunately, at that moment, a voice she had been longing to hear suddenly rang out behind her, startling her before nearly making her cry tears of joy.
"What's this? Waiting for me?"
"You—why are you so late!"
Avril, still young and not as good as actors at hiding her emotions, blurted out her feelings before even turning around. Her voice was filled with both resentment and joy, and her bright, cool eyes touched Wayne's heart.
"Sorry, I don't think I'm actually late, but making you wait was my fault." Wayne, as he spoke, couldn't help but pull Avril into his arms, holding her close.
Avril instinctively let out a small gasp.
This was only their second time meeting, and they hadn't even established a relationship!
But looking at Wayne's handsome face, as if sculpted by the ancient Greeks, and his deep eyes, she found herself unable to push him away.
Luckily, Wayne let go of her on his own, then pulled out a necklace he had bought earlier that day from a luxury store on Rodeo Drive, fastening it around her neck.
No woman can resist shiny jewelry unless they're pretending otherwise.
Moreover, the necklace's design was a miniature version of the iconic guitar 'Black Strat' used by legendary 1970s guitarist David Gilmour, making it even more exquisite and beautiful.
Avril fell in love with the pendant at first sight.
"Thank you!"
Daring and straightforward as ever, Avril didn't hesitate to accept Wayne's gift.
Their eyes met, and without waiting for Wayne to make the first move, a delighted and sweet Avril stood on her tiptoes, wrapped her arms around his neck, and kissed him.
Not far away, Sandy Robert, who had heard Avril's gasp and looked over, saw the scene unfold. A grin spread across his face.
"Perfect! Avril's path to stardom is secure now!"
Later that night, after her performance, Avril eagerly pulled Wayne into his car, leaving her manager behind.
Wayne, seeing her enthusiasm, assumed she must be highly skilled. However, to his surprise, she was still quite inexperienced, which amused Wayne.
It reminded him that appearances can be deceiving, especially with women.
"Should I write a few more songs for her?" Wayne thought as he gently stroked the golden-haired girl in his arms, who clung to him like an octopus.
"If I can have my work featured in her album, that could be interesting."
"Plus, if I create some classic songs in advance, it could help with my upcoming film projects."
"But in that case, I'll need to brush up on my music knowledge to avoid making any mistakes…"
To be fair, compared to other girls, Avril did have a lot of personality. After waking up, the first thing she did was set some ground rules with him.
"I know you have a lot of women, and I'm okay with that. I'll be loyal to you, but when we're together, you can't think about other women, and you definitely can't invite them over!" Avril said, staring stubbornly into his eyes.
"No problem," Wayne agreed readily, then teased, "But are you sure you can handle me alone?"
Avril glared at him fiercely, but instead of replying, she simply showed him her limits through her actions.
Even though she almost passed out from exhaustion again, she refused to back down, which left Wayne both amused and helpless.
To reward Avril, Wayne personally cooked a decent lunch for her. After they ate, he drove her back to her hotel before returning to Wayne Manor.
It wasn't that he didn't want to spend more time with her—after all, he had just won over this little beauty.
But his assistant Hannah had called to inform him that the script for *The Notebook* was finally finished, and he needed to review it as soon as possible.
The *Notebook* project had been delayed for far too long. Jessica was growing bored with her daily acting classes, and Wayne himself wanted to wrap up the film and move on to his next project.
On the other hand, when Sandy Robert saw the exhausted Avril return to the hotel, he was stunned.
"What are you doing back here?"
Sandy frowned, his worry written all over his face.
"You didn't throw a tantrum and offend Mr. Wayne, did you?"
"F**k!" Avril flipped him off, annoyed. "I'm just here to get my luggage, alright?"
Sandy wasn't offended by Avril's rudeness. Hearing she was only back for her luggage, he sighed with relief, his expression brightening.
"Not bad, not bad. Has Mr. Wayne already arranged a new place for you to stay? I heard he buys a villa for each of his women?"
"He didn't buy it; he rented it. Just for a year," Avril explained casually.
Renting or buying made little difference to Sandy Robert.
"Of course I know it's rented! That's a Beverly Hills villa we're talking about. If he bought them, a dozen would cost tens of millions! Even someone like Rupert Murdoch wouldn't be that extravagant. So, which street is your villa on?"
"Rox Street."
"That's the place! I heard Mr. Wayne rented several villas there for his women, and the rental prices have skyrocketed to $30,000 a month! Lots of girls are trying to move in, hoping to catch his eye."
"Now that you mention it, I don't feel so excited anymore." Avril paused mid-packing and rolled her eyes.
Sandy, however, just snorted. "You should be grateful! The rent is $30,000 a month—that's $360,000 a year. Even though the company signed a $2 million contract for two albums, at your current pace, you're not even making $360,000 a year."
Rather than being discouraged, Avril stubbornly declared, "With my talent, I'll be making $3.6 million, even $36 million a year, soon enough!"
Sandy was speechless.
Though he believed in Avril's potential, $36 million was an exaggeration. In this era, only Michael Jackson and Madonna could barely pull that off.
Even $3.6 million was a stretch—that was the level of a top-tier artist.
"Well, keep working hard," Sandy shrugged, changing the subject. "Since you've got a place, I won't need to rent one for you."
"Got it," Avril replied impatiently, waving him off like she was shooing a fly.
Who knows if all agents are this talkative? But hers definitely talks a lot.
"Fine, I'm heading out. Do you need me to call a car for you?"
"No, Wayne said he'd send a driver for me."
An hour later, Avril, carrying her guitar and dragging two large suitcases, got into a Silver Angel car under Sandy Robert's envious gaze and quickly sped off.
It was clear that Avril's departure from his care wasn't far off.
In his opinion, with Wayne's help, Avril would rise to stardom faster and higher than he had originally anticipated.
Soon, he probably wouldn't be her agent anymore.
But Sandy didn't feel too bad about it. After all, in America, agent contracts aren't like those in South Korea, where they last ten years or more. They're much shorter, and artists can fire their agents anytime.
Considering Avril's potential and the quality of the songs already completed, her debut album was likely to be a big hit.
At that time, Avril would definitely catch the attention of major companies and be poached by them.
If he tried to use tricks to keep Avril forcefully, not only would it harm her interests and lead to a fallout between them, but he would also offend those giant companies. Losing his job and being unable to stay in the industry would be the least of his worries—he might even disappear completely.
So, from the beginning, he only wanted to make as much money as he could while he could. Otherwise, he wouldn't have gone through all the trouble of getting Avril into that bar to perform.
And in less than half a month, Wayne's two generous rewards had already earned him a hefty $40,000, equivalent to almost half a year's income for him.
"It's a pity she won't be able to perform at that bar anymore, but with Wayne's resources and connections, Avril should be able to get more commercial performance opportunities," Sandy Roberts thought to himself.
Unlike the film industry, the majority of the money from record sales goes to the record companies. Concerts and live performances are the real ways for singers to make money.
Meanwhile, Wayne had no idea about Sandy Roberts' thoughts. If he did, he would have told him he was overthinking.
Concerts aside, he considered regular commercial performances to be beneath Avril—unless they were performances at prestigious award ceremonies like the Oscars.
However, Avril had just arrived in Los Angeles and hadn't even met Cliff Magness or written "Losing Grip" and "Unwanted" yet. Not to mention, she hadn't teamed up with The Matrix to co-write "Complicated" and "Falling Down" under Sandy Roberts' guidance.
The songs she had written on her own so far were still far from impressive.
After confirming that the script was good and calling Mia to speed up preparations, Wayne started contemplating whether he should write a couple of songs for Avril himself.
"Hmm, writing scripts and shooting movies all the time can get monotonous. Maybe a change of pace would be refreshing," Wayne mused.
However, the songs that came to his mind were at least top-five hits on the Billboard Hot 100. Giving them away to a record company for free seemed like too much of a loss.
After some thought, he decided to call Harvey.
"Hey, Harvey, long time no see! How have you been?" Wayne exchanged some pleasantries before getting to the point: "Do you have a way to secure a performance slot at the Oscars halftime show?"
Harvey was momentarily stunned.
He knew that Wayne calling him must mean he wanted a favor, and he was more than happy to help this rising star, whose influence had already surpassed his, to earn some goodwill.
But he hadn't expected that Wayne would call to ask for a performance spot at the Oscars halftime show.
(End of chapter)